


The Midnight Man

by FMB



Series: Hiccup and the Ghost of Burgess Lake [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Demon Summoning, Ghosts, M/M, The Midnight Man - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 15:17:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1515191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FMB/pseuds/FMB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't play this game either. Bad, bad things will happen.</p><p>Jamie convinces Hiccup and the others to play the Midnight Game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Midnight Man

“Hiccup!” Jamie called out, catching up to the brunet teen as he walked down the hall of the high school, “Hiccup, do you want to come over tonight? Me and the others found a game we want to play!”

 

“A game?” Hiccup repeated, looking at the other with doubt, “Is this like the last 'game' you told me about? Because the last time I don't really remember it being fun.”

 

“I promise, it's nothing like that!” Jamie said with a smile, and when Hiccup only narrowed his eyes, Jamie relented, “Okay, it's a _bit_ like that...” Hiccup only continued to glare, and Jamie heaved a loud sigh, “Okay, so it might be a little worse.”

 

“I knew it! You really _are_ out to kill me!” Hiccup said angrily, but Jamie shook his head no.

 

“I'm not! I'm really not, look, the game is called the Midnight Man,” Jamie began as they entered their classroom, finding their seats towards the back, “It's a really easy process, but it's a long game. We found the perfect house to play it in, just in the woods, sort of hidden back there.”

 

“Jamie, is this going to have something to do with summoning something?” Hiccup asked, pulling out his notebook and setting it on the desk, “Because I've had my fair share of summonings...”

 

Jamie scoffed at that, pulling out his own notebook and pen, and he retorted, “That's rich, coming from you.”

 

“Hey, I don't summon him, okay? He shows up whenever he wants.” Hiccup replied quickly, glaring at Jamie, “Besides, _you're_ the one who made me summon him in the first place!”

 

“I didn't _make_ you do anything! I simply told you about it!” Jamie fought back, but their argument was cut short when the teacher began to speak. They sat through the first half of class quiet and attentive, but Jamie wasn't just about ready to give up. He quickly tore of a corner from his paper, and he began to write on it. When he was done, he crushed the note into a ball and threw it to Hiccup, who looked annoyed when it landed on his desk.

 

Opening it, Hiccup found it was just an address and a time, and Jamie gave him a thumbs up when he looked at him. Hiccup rolled his eyes, exasperated, but he gave a nod. Jamie practically pounded the air with his fist in glee.

 

\----------

 

Hiccup had somehow convinced his father that he was going to a study-sleepover with Jamie, and he walked down the road alone, backpack filled with a textbook—to get past his Dad—and a blanket, plus a flashlight, just in case.

 

As he got closer to the house Jamie mentioned, he realized he was being followed, but he wasn't afraid. Even from yards away, he could hear the sound of water splashing against the bumpy road he followed, and he merely called over his shoulder, “Come closer.”

 

As if it was all they needed to hear, the person tailing Hiccup seemed to apparate right beside him, but the closeness was no longer a danger.

 

“Where are you going?” Jack's voice came, a small lisp from the water running past his lips that Hiccup found somehow appealing.

 

“Jamie wanted to play a ghost-game, and I promised him I would go.” Hiccup explained briefly, not looking up at Jack's pale, blue-purple face. Jack didn't mind.

 

“What's the game?” He asked, a small smile coming to his lips, “I like games...”

 

“He says it's called the Midnight Man...?” Hiccup offered, and Jack's smile dropped immediately.

 

“The Midnight Man...” Jack repeated, looking away from the teen, but still following him, “Maybe this is a game you shouldn't play...”

 

“Don't be like that,” Hiccup scoffed, waving a hand to dismiss the ghost, and at the motion, Jack vanished in a splash, leaving behind a scattered puddle on the ground. Hiccup continued forward, determined to play this game and get it over with, or else Jamie would whine to him the entire next day.

 

When he arrived at the house, he saw Jamie and his band of friends already there, each with a paper in one hand and a pen in the other.

 

“Good! You made it! Man, I'm surprised you convinced your Dad to let you out this late,” Jamie said with a laugh, pulling Hiccup further into the house by his sleeve.

 

“It's only ten,” Hiccup replied curtly, snatching his arm away when he was inside, “So, what? Are we starting this thing?”

 

“Not yet,” Monty chimed in before Jamie could, adjusting his glasses anxiously. Honestly, Hiccup doubted Monty would have been the type to do things like this, “We had to begin the ritual at midnight, or else we won't summon him correctly.”

 

“So what are we going to do in the meantime?” Hiccup asked next, dropping his backpack on the ground by the door and looking at the group, wondering if all of them always got tied into Jamie's shenanigans.

 

“Right now?” Pippa grinned, digging through her own bag and pulling out an Ouija board, at which both Claude and Caleb gasped in excitement.

 

“No way!” Claude laughed, putting his hands on his head in disbelief.

 

“This is awesome!” Caleb agreed, clapping his hands together.

 

“I'll light some candles!” Jamie offered, pulling out a bunch of tea-light candles and scattering them across the floor, arranging them around the board when Pippa put it down. As Jamie lit the candles one by one, everyone gathered around the board, creating a circle as close as they could.

 

“What's your name?” Monty asked first, putting his hands on the planchette, but Jamie just laughed at him and shook his head.

 

“We have to summon someone first, Monty!” He said, grabbing the hands of the two that sat beside him—Monty and Hiccup. They, in turn, took their neighbor's hand, and they their neighbor's, creating a circle.

 

“O, Spirits from beyond,” Jamie began, ignoring the snickering from Claude and the eye-roll from Caleb that followed right after, “Come forth from your graves and join us on this night! Tell us your secrets, whisper to us your wisdom, or simply join us for light conversation!”

 

When their hands separated and were placed on the planchette, Hiccup could already see movement from the corner of his eye. He heard the familiar sound of water, and he knew Jack came to mess with them. He kept his smile hidden from the others, wanting to play along as well.

 

“Who wants to ask the questions?” Pippa asked in a whisper, as if ghosts wouldn't be able to hear her.

 

“I'll do it,” Jamie said, of course, and he sniffed twice before he could think of something, “Is there a ghost here?”

 

Jack stepped closer, leaning towards the board, effectively passing through Cupcake as he went, and she shuddered. He touched the planchette, then moved it to 'yes', getting a chorus of gasps, followed by Claude asking, “Okay, who moved it?”

 

“No one!” Jamie said, completely faithful, “It's a ghost! I knew it!”

 

Quickly, everyone put their hands back on the planchette, and Jamie asked the next question, “What's your name?”

 

Jack seemed to ponder this for a moment, making eye contact with Hiccup and giving him a mischievous grin, then he began to move the planchette.

 

“'D'.... 'A'... 'B'... 'O'... 'O'?” Jamie read aloud, then frowned when the planchette went back to the center, “'Daboo'?”

 

“What's your last name?” Monty decided to ask, and Jack's smile widened. Hiccup bit his lip to keep from laughing.

 

“'D'... 'Y'.” Jamie read, and all of them pursed their lips in thought, trying to figure out how to pronounce this mysterious ghost's name.

 

“Daboo... die?” Monty suggested.

 

“Daboo Dee-Why?” Pippa asked, and that was when Claude began to crack up in laughter. Caleb wasn't far behind, and when they got curious looks from the other three—Hiccup aside—they quickly explained in unison.

 

“Daboo Dee! Da-Boody!” They howled in laughter, and Hiccup even joined in with them. When it became obvious they were had, Jamie pouted and crossed his arms, glaring at all of them.

 

“Okay, then who was moving it?” He asked, leering at Claude and Caleb first, but they shook their heads.

 

“Not us, we promise!” They vowed, and Jamie's look turned to Pippa, then Monty, then Cupcake, but all three of them shook their heads no. Finally, he looked at Hiccup, and being the terrible liar that he was, merely shrugged.

 

But before Jamie could accuse Hiccup of messing with them, the planchette began moving on its own—well, with Jack's help.

 

They all gasped, the laughter dying in their throats, and Jamie read out the letters as fast as he could.

 

“'H', 'O', 'W', 'R', 'U', 'D', 'E'.....? How Rude?” Jamie read, eyes wide, but then they narrowed when he realized what was going on.

 

“That's so unfair!” He said, looking at Hiccup, “I wanted to talk to a stranger-ghost, not your little lake buddy!”

 

“I told you, he just shows up when he wants!” Hiccup laughed, and the rest of the group relaxed at the news of Jack only playing with them, “Its not my fault you can't see him.”

 

Jack laughed at that, and somehow, that seemed to break through the life-death barrier, since pretty much everyone flinched. Hiccup merely grinned then said, “Well, at least you can hear him.”

 

Jamie and the others glanced at each other nervously, remembering how horrified Hiccup had been when he had summoned him, and their unasked question didn't pass the brunet teen, who merely rolled his eyes.

 

“Guys, come on, he's completely safe,” Hiccup said with a shrug, then yelped when Jack decided to rattle the Ouija board and blow out the candles. The six others cried out in surprise, and Jamie had to ask, “Are you sure?!”

 

“He's just messing with you guys.” Hiccup said with a shrug, not entirely phased by the scandal, since he had been getting used to it for months, “He's completely harmless. Jack, come on.”

 

Jack's playful grin didn't die, but he stopped rattling the board and he went to Hiccup's side, sitting cross-legged beside the other and watching the other teenagers slowly calm down. Jack poked at Hiccup's arm, getting his attention, and he asked with a smile, “So you're not playing the Midnight Man game?”

 

“Nah, we're waiting until midnight. That's when it'll work,” Hiccup said with a shrug, and Jack's smile fell.

 

“I don't think you should play it,” He said nervously, and though his words were heard by all of them, only Hiccup rolled his eyes.

 

“It's not going to be bad, it's just a little game.” Hiccup replied, helping Jamie light the candles again, “Besides, its Jamie's idea. Talk to him about it.”

 

“Jamie...” Jack looked up at the other brunet teen, frowning when his eyes darted around the room in response, “this is a bad idea.”

 

“W-well,” Jamie stammered out, looking down at the board to distract himself, “It's like Hiccup said, it's just a game. We're not going to die or anything...”

 

Jack went quiet at that, and Jamie immediately felt a sense of dread wash over him, “We're not going to die...are we?” but Jack still didn't reply. Instead, he crossed his arms and spat a little extra water out of his mouth, as if in protest.

 

Hiccup sighed and put his hands back on the planchette, “Come on, we still have more than an hour before we can start. Let's keep playing.”

 

Reluctantly the other kids began to put their hands on the planchette, and this time, Jack only sat back and watched as the kids interacted with not a ghost, but each other. They seemed to know this, too, about a half hour later, they resorted to story telling instead. Jamie took the reins, kicking off their spooky stories with a tale about the man in the house they were in, about how he poisoned his wife and their children, then hung himself from the rafters in the attic. He added that the body still hung to this day, slowly rocking back and forth....

 

Pippa tried matching the fear factor with her own story about a Wedigo, but she stuttered too much and instead opted for a happier ending rather than a scary one. The lovers got away, saving the previous victim from the Wedigo's clutches, and killed the monster all by themselves—much to Jamie's disapproval. They spent the next ten minutes arguing over whether or not a scary story should have a scary ending or not, and the argument only ended when Monty whined at them to tell the next story.

 

Next was Claude and Caleb, working off of each other to create an elaborate—but sort of confusing—story about a ghost that possessed children and made them kill their parents, and how one mother had to kill her own daughter in order to survive. They earned themselves a round of applause, then Cupcake took the stage, but hers was more comedic than scary. Something about haunted foods that made you do things depending on what you ate. Cake made you dance, Apples made you scream, Chicken breast made you talk in French, and so on.

 

Monty skipped, admitting he wasn't good at telling scary stories, so all eyes fell to Hiccup, who paled at the attention.

 

“I'm like Monty,” He said immediately, “I suck at scary stories.”

 

“Come on, you don't even have to make one up!” Jamie said, gesturing to Hiccup, “You have a real ghost following you around. Just tell us about that!”

 

Hiccup frowned as he thought about it, glancing at Jack, who merely shrugged in return. Hiccup sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically, then he said, “Okay, uh... I guess the first few times he showed up without being summoned was pretty scary... I mean, I thought for a while that I was still playing the game, so I ran away from him a lot, but then I realized he wasn't getting closer, even if I stood still for a long time. So eventually I just... called him over.”

 

“What?” Jamie complained, “That's not scary at all!”

 

“I told you!” Hiccup pouted, embarrassed at being shot down so quickly. Jack bumped an elbow against Hiccup's arm, trying to comfort him, and Hiccup couldn't help but smile at the attempt.

 

“It's almost midnight,” Monty finally announced, and everyone's happy demeanor died a little. They were nervous, of course... They were just about to summon something they didn't completely understand....

 

“Alright, Cupcake, pass out the candles. Let's go sit by the front door.” Jamie instructed, and Cupcake dug through her backpack to pull out candle after candle. They all arranged themselves by the front door, and Jack stood to watch, an anxious look on his face.

 

Monty held his watch to his face, counting down the seconds until it struck midnight, and everyone perched over their paper, prepared to write their names down at Monty's command.

 

“Fifty-nine!” Monty stated, and everyone scribbled their names down as fast as they could, then pricked their fingers and smeared blood over their names. Once everyone lit their candles, Jamie stood and knocked on the door, going quickly until he reached twenty-one, then he looked at Monty who held up a hand, fingers counting down. Right when his fingers were all down, Jamie knocked one last time, then he opened the door.

 

Everyone pulled their candles close and blew them out.

 

Hiccup heard the vague sound of water splashing on wood, and he knew Jack just left them. Once the door was closed, everyone rushed to relight their candles, and they all looked at each other, a weird, fearful excitement on their faces.

 

“Okay, let's split up,” Jamie said, but he was immediately followed by a loud chorus of “No way!” and “That's a terrible idea!”

 

“We just have to keep moving, right? The entire house is open for the game... so let's do two teams. One upstairs, one downstairs, just so we don't bump into each other,” Monty suggested, then pointed at Hiccup and Jamie respectively, “You two can be the team leaders.”

 

“Hiccup should get less people than me since he has Jack,” Jamie said immediately, getting a cold look from the brunet beside him. Hiccup didn't want to mention that Jack basically ditched them. That would only make them even more scared.

 

“Okay, then I'll pick first.” Hiccup said snootily, holding his candle closer to him, “Pippa.”

 

Jamie glared at Hiccup, but he didn't fight it. They both knew Pippa was his closest friend, and Hiccup only really wanted her on his team to spite him. “Cupcake,” Jamie decided, and the two of them went to stand beside their 'team leaders'.

 

“Claude.” Hiccup said next, and before Caleb could follow, Jamie called for him to join his team.

 

“What?” Caleb complained, crossing his arms, “You can't split us up!”

 

“Well, it was going to happen anyway!” Jamie said with a frown, “I get three people, Hiccup gets two. It's fair!”

 

Caleb and Claude looked at each other, then they split up, obviously uncomfortable with this whole arrangement.

 

“That means Monty's on my team, too,” Jamie stated, and the blond sniffed and readjusted his glasses.

 

“Picked last, like always,” He said with a sigh, going to Jamie's side.

 

“Okay, who gets the upstairs and who gets the downstairs?” Hiccup asked, looking at Jamie. The teen thought about it, then dug out a coin from his pocket.

 

“Call it?” He said, and Hiccup nodded. With an expert flip, the coin was cast into the air, and Hiccup called out, “Heads,”

 

The coin was caught, and Jamie held open his palm before nodding, “Okay, you chose. Top or bottom?”

 

Hiccup bit his lip, then looked up at the stairs just down the hall. They could fall from the railing if they went to fast... but it was smaller than the bottom floor. Less places for the Midnight Man to wait for them.

 

“Top.” Hiccup finally decided, looking back to Jamie, “If anyone's in trouble, though, scream, and we'll join up at the stairs, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Jamie agreed, and they separated, Hiccup and his team heading up the stairs and Jamie and his group going towards the kitchen.

 

Upstairs, Hiccup, Pippa, and Claude walked quietly down the hallway. They had four rooms in total that could be explored, the bedroom, the master bedroom, the guest bedroom, and the window room—which they titled as such because of the giant stained-glass window on the side of it. The had two hallways, one that lead to the bedrooms, the other than lead to the window room and the bathroom.

 

They walked the halls quietly, not daring to speak lest they drew out the Midnight Man, and they stepped into the rooms occasionally, looking amongst the items left inside. Pippa kept the time, occasionally reading it aloud from her watch. They never spent more than five minutes in a room.

 

An hour passed like this, and it didn't seem like they or Jamie's group witnessed the Midnight Man at all. None of their candles went out, and while the didn't have a good view of Jamie's group, they didn't hear any gasps or comments. They continued to explore, silent still, but they all startled to attention at the sound of a shout.

 

“Light it! Light it!” Jamie yelled, panic in his voice.

 

“I'm trying!” Caleb yelled back, and Claude rushed out of the room, hurrying to his brother's side.

 

“Don't just stand there, you're supposed to run!” Cupcake shouted next, and Pippa muttered a nervous, “Oh, no,” and hurried downstairs too, leaving Hiccup alone.

 

He took a few steps towards the stairs, wondering if he should go down too, but he heard the sigh of relief, and immediately assumed the candle was re-lit in time. He took a relieved breath, but then that was when the whispering began.

 

Hiccup's relief died, and he spun around where he stood, but he saw no one. He walked forward, rushing to the closest room, but just before he stepped through the doorway, his candle blew out.

 

“Shit!” He gasped, dropping to his knees and digging through his pockets, pulling out his box of matches. The whispering was getting louder and his hands shook as he struggled the box open, but it tore instead, and his matches were scattered across the room, “Shit! Shit!”

 

He patted the floor anxiously, picking up the closest match he could find, and he started striking it against the box, but it wouldn't light. He struck twice more, but when the whispering got closer, he just dropped the match and matchbox.

 

He reached into his pocket to grab the bag of salt he had, breaking it open and beginning to draw a circle around him, but the Midnight Man was faster than he was. Just before he was able to finish, a dark shadow was upon him, and he opened his mouth to yell, but he was silenced as he was thrown into his subconscious.

 

He saw fire, first, sprouting from the wooden floor he knelt on and engulfing him, making his scream and cry in pain, but his open mouth only swallowed the flames, allowing them down into his stomach and charring him from the inside. He closed his burning eyes, gagging on the fire, but when he opened them again, he found himself at a cliff, the water miles below him and jagged rocks sticking out from the waves. He stood where he was, eyes wide and heart pounding, but before he was able to throw himself back and crawl away from the edge of the cliff, the ground beneath him crumbled away, sending him to plummet to his death. He threw out his arms, trying to grab the edge to catch himself, but he couldn't reach it in time, and the next thing he felt were sharp rocks piercing his skin. He gasped, but a rock tore through the back of his skull and protruded from his opened mouth. Though he should have been dead, he remained conscious, and he could feel the blood running from his pierced body, hear the waves crashing against the rock the burrowed into him, even feel the spray they cast. He choked on the rock, then squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to will the pain away.

 

When he opened them again, he saw Jamie standing in front of him, a book in one hand and a knife in the other.

 

“Let's play a game,” He said happily, holding the book out in front of him, then slipping his hand away from it. The book stayed suspended in the air, allowing Jamie to page through it and find the 'game' he wanted to play. When he reached it, he made a victorious noise, then looked back up at Hiccup, who was frozen to the spot.

 

“We're going to summon a demon,” He said excitedly, tapping the knife against the book, “I'll read the ingredients. We need some sulfur,” and a jar of the stuff appeared, suspended in air beside the book just as he read the name, “Some bones from a dead monk,” and those appeared too. Every ingredient he read just appeared in front of him, floating in formation, and when he reached the end, he grinned, “And a virgin sacrifice...”

 

Hiccup began to struggle, and when he looked down at himself, he realized he had been tied to a

chair and gagged, but this only made him struggle harder.

 

“Oh, what's the matter? Scared?” Jamie laughed out, stepping closer to Hiccup and showing off his knife, letting it glint in an undeclared source of light, “But you want to be my friend, don't you? And friends do favors for each other... I mean, it's not like you have anyone else to hang out with. If you do this for me, I'll even let you sit right by me during lunch. Wouldn't you like that?”

 

Hiccup struggled harder, tears in his eyes and they ran freely down his cheeks, and before Jamie was able to approach him, someone else appeared in this void. Hiccup could barely gasp, but when he saw the familiar bright blue eyes peeking at him from over Jamie's shoulder, he couldn't help but feel safe.

 

“This is my human,” Jack hissed out, surprisingly without a lisp, and Jamie turned to look at the ghost, “He's mine to haunt, not yours.”

 

Jamie scowled at this, and he dropped his knife, turning completely to face Jack.

 

“He summoned me. He lost the game. He's mine to haunt!” He argued, his voice still very much like Jamie's and Hiccup couldn't tell if it really was him or if it was the Midnight Man. He was caught in the midst of consciousness and unconsciousness, unable to tell what was real or fake.

 

“I said,” Jack growled, walking up to Jamie at a quick pace, “He's _mine!”_ and he shot out an arm, grabbing Jamie by the front of his shirt, and in a quick flurry, the both of them struggled against each other, as if turning into clouds of semi-tangible smoke, swirling against one another in blue and black until they shot at Hiccup, making the boy squeal against his gag and flinch, squeezing his eyes shut tight, only to open them and see the ceiling of the house they had been in. He felt someone shaking his shoulders, could hear someone yelling, but he didn't come entirely back to reality until a flutter of blue eyes looked over him from the ceiling.

 

With a start, Hiccup sat up, startling the group of kids around him. He looked at them, then down at his watch, finding it only to be two o'clock . Pippa and Monty were crying, Jamie looked panicked, Claude and Caleb were stunned into silence, and Cupcake had her cellphone in her shaking hand, but it didn't look like she had called anyone.

 

“You were j-just convulsing th-the entire time!” Pippa sobbed out, reaching out to touch him, but she looked too afraid to. Hiccup blinked a few times, and he looked over the others again, a little uncertain.

 

“You didn't call the hospital?” He decided to ask, and only then did he realize his mouth was thick with saliva, his clothes clung to his sweaty skin, and—embarrassingly--his pants were a bit wetter than before. He slowly brought his knees to his chest, feeling every muscle in his body ache in protest, but right now he really didn't want them surrounding his soiled self.

 

“Jamie told us not to...” Cupcake said slowly, looking at the other brunet, who now looked absolutely ashamed.

 

“If you left the house, who knew what the Midnight Man would have done!” Jamie tried to explain, hoping Hiccup would understand why he protested getting outside help, “The entire game would have been ruined, and you might have been in even more danger!”

 

Hiccup shook his head silently, unsure whether or not he should feel offended and threatened or thankful. Instead, he looked around them, noticing their still lit candles surrounding them, along with the circle of salt someone drew around him while he was unconscious.

 

“Have... Have I been convulsing the entire hour?” Hiccup decided to ask, really wishing he had a change of clothes, now that he was starting to smell himself. Monty thankfully shook his head no.

 

“We t-took turns watching you... We thought that maybe if we completed the circle around you, you wouldn't have bad nightmares, but...” He petered off, then tried to resume with an anxious, “You had a seizure for nearly five minutes...”

 

“Pippa was the one watching you,” Cupcake pointed out, and the girl only cried more.

 

“I didn't know what to do... I'm so sorry, Hiccup, I just... I just panicked and called everyone up..”

 

Hiccup shook his head, immediately forgiving her, “It's not your fault,” He said, casting a stern look at Jamie, who only looked away, “But it's only two o'clock. The game is still on, isn't it?”

 

“No,” Jack spoke up, catching Hiccup's attention. He was kneeling directly behind the brunet, and hearing him so close nearly made him scream after all of those mental images he witness while in the Midnight Man's clutches, “I drove him out.”

 

“Hiccup?” Caleb asked nervously, getting the teen's attention, “Is this my fault...?”

 

Hiccup stared at him in surprise, having never seen him look so guilty and so horrified before. Usually, he and Claude were the mischievous twins of the group, pulling pranks and jokes—mostly on each other, but people would get caught in the crossfire. Seeing him like this was... heart breaking.

 

Instead of answering, though, Hiccup only looked back at Jamie, who only hunched his shoulders and squeezed his hands into fists, obviously ashamed, “Jack says he drove the Midnight Man out.” He said, looking back at Caleb and smiling, but his face felt tired, and his body weak.

 

“How can we trust him?” Jamie asked, though he didn't lift his head to look at Hiccup. He was too ashamed to meet his eye.

 

“I trust him,” Hiccup said, looking back at Jack, who reached out and wrapped his arms around Hiccup's chest, helping him to his feet, much to the protest of Pippa and Cupcake, and Hiccup's own body, “I'll go out first if you really want me to.”

 

He was leaning on Jack, who felt surprisingly solid right now compared to before. The ghost didn't comment on it, so neither did Hiccup, he just gratefully took it.

 

The group looked at each other silently, unsure about the offer, but they inevitably took it. Jack was there to protect Hiccup, anyways. If he slipped back into convulsions, Jack could—hopefully--pull him out of it, like he had done before. Slowly, they all picked up their candles and followed the candle-less Hiccup down the stairs and towards the front door.

 

His hand went to the knob, twisting it open and allowing the door to swing inwards, the breeze from outside whistling against their skin. Hiccup breathed it in, Jack still behind him with a hand securely on his back, and when the brunet took a step outside, Jack's solid form turned back to a ghostly breeze, and Hiccup dropped to his knees on the concrete just outside the door. Everyone shouted in surprise, but Hiccup waved them off, showing he was fine, “I'm just really sore,” He explained, putting his hands on the wall to lift himself back to his feet.

 

“See?” He spoke, finding his balance and walking further away from the house, finding it even more embarrassing and uncomfortable that the wind made every wet spot on his person cold and noticeable, “We're safe.”

 

Slowly, the others followed after him, and when they were all safely outside with their things, they immediately headed for Jamie's house, sneaking in through the backdoor and up into his room. Jamie, as a kind of half-apology, allowed Hiccup a quick shower and gave him clothes to change in, along with offering to get rid of his stained jeans and sweaty shirt. Hiccup took the offer gratefully, and when he was cleaned up and dressing in the bathroom, he was met once more by those ice-blue eyes.

 

Jack stood against the wall, water dripping from his lips, but it wasn't pouring like it usually was. Hiccup paused in putting on his shirt, not wanting to close his eyes just for Jack to disappear. He lowered his arms, then turned to look at Jack face-to-face.

 

“Thank you,” He spoke, but Jack didn't reply. He merely continued to stare at Hiccup, as if trying to read him or make sure he was okay, “You... You saved my life.”

 

“No,” Jack finally murmured, “I just didn't like another demon taking my prize.”

 

“Prize?” Hiccup scoffed, crossing his arms now, “Excuse you, I think _I_ was the one who won our game. That means you're _my_ prize!”

 

Jack grinned at that, and he stepped away from the wall, going right up to Hiccup, brushing his ghostly fingers against his cheek, “Let me be selfish.”

 

“I won't,” Hiccup replied haughtily, “Not unless you really are being selfish.”

 

“Can I be?” He asked, and just like that, his fingers turned solid, pushing back strands of hair. Instead of giving a yes-no answer, though, Hiccup merely scrunched his face up in confusion.

 

“How are you doing that?” He asked, reaching up to catch Jack's hand, surprising the ghost.

 

“I don't,” Jack replied after a beat, turning his hand in Hiccup's grip and lacing their fingers together, “I touch those who want to be touched.”

 

At the explanation, Hiccup's cheeks turned red and he looked away, which only made Jack grin wider. They stepped closer to one another, Jack's hand running down Hiccup's arm and Hiccup's hand reaching up to cup his cheek, their eyes locking with the others.

 

“I guess you can be selfish,” Hiccup whispered, and Jack hummed happily.

 

“Good,” He murmured, “I like being selfish.”


End file.
